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About Me & My Blog

I am a 20-something wife and mother. I converted to Mormonism when I was 15 and joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when I was 18. I attended Brigham Young University for four years where I met my partner, a returned missionary. We now live in Canada, where my partner grew up and where he served his mission.

Shortly after the birth of our daughter we left the church. This blog serves as a record of why and what happened as a result. It also includes my thoughts and feelings about the process.

I will be honest. I will be open. I will try to be a voice of reason. Some will choose to be offended. True believing Mormons (TBM) might, if they even dare to read an "anti-Mormon" blog by an "apostate," accuse me of bitterness, hate, attacking the church, and any other number of things.

Too bad. I intend to "declare the truth, even with a loud voice," and "in soberness" even if some "[take] the truth to be hard" and "it [cuts] them to the very center."

PLEASE NOTE: Some of the info you'll find in the about section and sidebars on this blog are severely out of date (my daughter is now six, my son is two). But from time to time I will still post here.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

When I hear a TBM say "People only leave the church because they are offended" I really want to stop them short by saying "wow - that's an awful thing to say about your church. Are people so offensive in your church that they can turn half the members away from God with their behavior? What kind of church do you belong to, anyway, that drives away members in such numbers? What do they teach the members that makes them so offensive to others? You don't hear other churches claiming that they are so offensive they are losing members in droves. That's really a sad situation.

• Remember that “a soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger” (Proverbs 15:1). It almost never helps to argue or contend with others regarding your beliefs or to become defensive or belligerent. Just share your stories in a kind and gentle way, remembering that not everyone will agree with what you say—and that’s okay. Remember to respect others and their opinions.

• Be friendly and polite, even if you comment anonymously. Act like you would if you were talking to your next door neighbor. How you comment may be just as important as what you say.

A friend on Facebook had this as a status in celebration of the lunar landing anniversary:

“We will never get a man into space. This earth is man’s sphere and it was never intended that he should get away from it…The moon is a superior planet to the earth and it was never intended that man should go there. You can write it down in your books that this will never happen.” May 14, 1961 – Joseph Fielding Smith, Jr

Saturday, July 18, 2009

It took them a week to release their version of events (even in the face of outrage and protests over the incident). If it really takes that long to write three short paragraphs to tell the “real story” then you might want to fire everybody in your PR department. The guys you detainedmanaged to tell their story within 24 hours and they don’t even have a PR department.

If they had “obviously been using alcohol” (a single beer according to other side) why weren’t they charged with public drunkedness or whatever charge Utah has for drunk, “belligerent, lewd, profane” individuals?

This press release makes them look absolutely faultless. The other side isn’t pretending to be perfect. They admit they cussed at the guards after being treated the way they were treated. Nobody is perfect. Stop pretending you didn’t do anything wrong (still waiting for more info on if the guards did, in fact, illegally detain the two men and if so, when will they be charged?).

They don’t exactly have a history of telling the truth when the truth is “not useful” for them.

Are there any witnesses? Where are they? At this point I’m inclined to believe the first story from the men detained, rather than this press release from the organization that can’t stand to look bad.

And my apologies for the sporadic posts. My main blog takes up almost all my leftover time after taking care of the mini-me. But I'm not abandoning the blog. And I am brainstorming some new posts. So stay tuned!